Herbert to Arrows

[kuchi]

The news have just come. Johny Herbert is going to be a test driver for arrows next season, he will start testing at silverstone march 7th. Well JH had no place left to go, minardi necver talked to him, his cart dreams were over, so he ended up in arrows. What do you think about it, I don't know but for me it wasn't a big move. Eventhough he will be with the team all season, he still has plans to run at the Indy 500, if arrows let him, so another adventure starts for the english man.

[R]

I agree, not really a big move, especially after his high-flying plans to join the CART series. I guess his accident in his final GP, where he was injured, didn't help his cause in terms of CART prospects.

I hear he has plans to drive the Le Mans 24 hour race as well.

[Speed]

Bla, bla, bla, bla, bla..........

Who was on the line ???, and talking about what ???

[Super Tourer]

I knew he'd regret turning down the Williams test seat!!

Those of you who saw my post on the subject know my views on that one....

However, Jonny says that a Champ car deal was promised around the same time that FW offered him the test seat. But anyone who's been around motorsport for as long as he has, should know that promises in motor racing count for didly squat!!!

On top of the relative humiliation of having to backtrack and end up testing for a mid-field team, it appears he also has to raise the budget to race in the IRL. Paid driver to pay driver in a few months, would retirement have been a better option?

[massifheed]

Well, he's getting £2 million to test with Arrows, so I think he made a fair move there. I don't know why people say that it was a bad move. I mean he has plenty going on this year, the IRL races (including the Indy 500), LeMans, Arrows testing. He has his fingers in a lot of pies which I think is good. The IRL and LeMans will be his proving grounds for Cart next year, and for the time being he has regular time in an F1 car to keep his driving skills in top form, plus the cash, which is a bonus!

What with the unfortunate end to his last F1 season I think he has made a good choice.

[steve nielsen]

Don't forget: He's also gonna drive the AX3, he's the perfect driver for that.

[slicktoast]

I wouldn't mind making those kind of biscuits after I officially leave the 'arena'!!

[Super Tourer]

Where did the £2 million salary figure come from. I haven't seen any mention of pay. If they are paying him that kind of money, which sounds a lot to me, it makes the decision by Arrows even more bizzare.

They biff out De la Rosa and his sponsor because they can't agree on space allocation on the car, hire Bernoldi, for whom I presume Red Bull pays for in some form or another who in turn already carry livery on the Saubers.

Arrows then pay (if this is true) a GP drivers salary to Herbert, who I don't think has a particularly strong reputation as a car developer, as a test driver.

If you add to this, the fact that Arrows had one of the best chassis out there last year, but suffered with engines, all they need is somebody to thrash round a track testing engines.....

Plenty of cheaper and as quick drivers around who could do that...

[massifheed]

Super, the £2M figure was one that I got off the JH website. Indeed, a guy on there broke the news that Johnny would be driving for Arrows about a week before the official announcement. Neddless to say that everyone thought he was talking **** until yesterday! Anyway, that does seem a lot to me too. But he has always been a paid driver so I don't know how that compares to the guy's wages when he was racing in F1 as opposed to just testing, and he does have a lot of experience which the new guys just don't have.
To be honest I wouldn't be suprised if Tom Walkinshaw sees how his drivers pan out in the race and then try and get Johnny to replace the slowest driver. That might well appeal to Johnny if the IRL and LeMans drives don't work out. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

[Quino]

Johnny has stated clearly that this isn't a backdoor-move back into Formula1. It's pure testing.
We'll see what happens. Bernoldi is looking better than i expected in testing (which is also because I really don't know the guy all that well.)

[Sparky]

Johnny obviously harbours no ill feelings for Walkinshaw, after the 'Schumacher era' they shared at Benetton in '95. The only press I've seen JH in recently is a series of quips about how hard it was as Benettons' Schumacher Shadow back then!

And TW would have a pretty good idea as to how effective (or not!) JH is at car development, wouldn't he?

I can't help thinking it's just Johnny keeping his hand in.
It did wonders for Panis...

[DNQ]

I don't think johhny at arrows is a particularly good idea at all...